On April 29th we took 4 students to Turnfurlong Junior School to take part in the Buckinghamshire Final of the Jaguar Maths Challenge. The Jaguar Maths Challenge is a national competition in which hundreds of schools take part. Unfortunately our budget didn’t quite stretch to luxury F1 Team transport so we made our own with the school minibus and some posters in the windows!! Many thanks to Mr Broomhead for getting us there and back safely, despite the girls ignoring my no singing on the bus rule!!

The challenge involves teams of students preparing a car to take part in a F1 race using computer simulation software. To set up their cars, teams must use their maths skills to measure the track features and calculate their maximum safe speeds. Once the track features have been correctly setup, the information is entered into the simulation software and the teams run practice laps to see how well their cars perform and how close they are to that all important pole position!! When the cars are all ready we run a race to see which team has the fastest car and calculated their fuel correctly! The work required to enter the challenge has been done during Maths club which is held on Wednesdays 3.40 - 4.30 after school.

Our teams were Chris and Rory in Year 7 (KS3 Team) and Josie and Emma in Year 10 (KS4 Team) and they made it through the Bucks knockout race to the final after months of hard work. Unfortunately the months of hard work didn’t really help Chris and Rory at the final as their car suffered a hydraulic failure early on which put them out of the race. Josie and Emma had a tough race but were the best KS4 team on the day. They were presented with a trophy and crowned Buckinghamshire KS4 Champions!! We had a really fun afternoon and both teams represented the school admirably, you should be very proud of them.

Anyone else interested in joining Maths Club and possibly entering the challenge for next year should come up to ICT after school on Wednesdays or speak to Mr Nkoane in the Maths department. As well as the national competition we will also be running a competition with some of our partner schools, so there is still some glory to be won!!

Mr Hodgins
ICT Systems Manager